Healed

She loves to run. Pushing herself further and further while the buds of the IPod play track after track. Kelly Clarkson's Heartbeat Song bursts into the chorus as her trainers make furious contact with the gravelly path again. He'd kick her bum if he was here. Tell her to go home, have a shower, get in her favourite pyjamas and make Mama's hot cocoa. He would but, he can't she thinks.

Daddy is dead.

Mama too

No one left.

So she carries on and her heart breaks just a little bit more.

The water washes off the sweat, the dirt, but, the grief is still there. It lingers on her skin like an open wound. Work seems to make it better, seeing the smiles, hearing the laughter. Knowing that because of her, because of Mary-Margaret Blanchard at least one child looks forward to school every day.

Ruby Lucas seems to jump into her life at just the right time, a whirlwind of fun and energy who is absolutely convinced in the power of True Love if… only for the night.

"What about Graham?" Ruby diverts their gaze to the local sheriff. He's kind and very attractive but, is far too interested in the nymph like Sophia whose pooling green eyes and milk white hair prove quite the aphrodisiac.

"Are you kidding? Look at them." Mary-Margaret chuckles pulling the charcoal black stick from her Martini, lifting it up to her lips and letting the plump musty olive lazily fall into her mouth. In two seconds. It's gone.

"Okay, Okay. Sean?"

She nearly chokes on the alcohol sputtering it out. The poor stick left on the bar. "Ashley."

Realisation dawns on the other woman's face and she looks ridiculously ashamed of herself for even saying it. "I never said that."

"Good. Cause I never heard it."

And just when she thinks this hellish game is over, a devilish grin spreads across the wolfish twenty- six year old's features.

"What?"

"David."

"David- as in David Nolan, wonderful guy, makes me go weak everywhere. David?"

"You're crazy."

"No! He's right over there with Sean." Ruby nearly screeches. "You can't keep avoiding someone who makes you sigh like a lovesick schoolgirl."

"I do not- Oh. I do." Mary-Margaret admits, downing the last of her drink before Ruby pulls her hands into hers almost begging her friend to see the truth.

"I guess one dance is not gonna kill me." Ruby lights up virtually shoving her in his direction. "That's my girl."

Since he was a little boy his mother has told him the same words. "Hold on. Hold onto to the one you'll love for the rest of your days. Hold on. And never let go." He'd heard those words from the moment he saw her and now, she was here, clinging softly and playing with the hairs on the back of his neck while a country song he can't recall plays on the jukebox.

"So… Miss Blanchard." He says playfully, watching her eyes, that haven't left his own in the last ten minutes. "Have you come to turn me down again?"

"It depends what you're offering." She teases back and then he presses his lips to the soft spot on her neck and barely gives her time to make a sound before he whispers a word only she can hear.

"Everything."

Everything is him kissing you softly as soon as you leave the bar, stroking your cheeks before kissing each one. It's the breath you didn't realise you'd lost as he virtually carries you to his apartment bridal style while trying to turn the key. You finally get in five minutes later after distracting him.

"Mary-Margaret." He says when they have recovered drawing soft shapes on her bare back which cause her to only fall deeper.

"Hmm. Charming." The slow and delicate kiss she starts is a reflection of what she has been trying to say for the last year.

"Please." He begs. "Please don't shut me out anymore. I love you and it killed me to see you in so much pain. Please don't shut me out."

He was there after the crash, held her after she identified them but, every-time he got close she pushed and pushed until they had become nothing. Nothing but a love she had denied both of them. "David." The euphoric tears fall as she cups his cheek and rubs looking solely at him. "I love you so much. And I am SO truly sorry that I lost what we could have had. It consumed me and I couldn't bear to lose you."

"Hey." "You will never lose me." The tears are wiped away and replaced with searing kisses.

Faster and faster she heals. She heals by his side. In their home, in their bed. On their wedding day.

"I will love you for all eternity. Until my last breath. For every day until the end of time. I will always find you."

"I will love you for all eternity. Until my last breath. For every day until the end of time. I will always find you." Mary-Margaret vows as they loop their wedding rings on at the same time before sealing their union with a triumphant kiss.

The next time she runs it's with her husband. The agony she feels is because she's having their child. The grief has gone replaced by love. Her husband's teary kisses as they gaze upon a perfect little girl. "Oh." "Hi baby." "I'm your Mommy. Hi." She cries kissing her forehead before David catches her lips in several clinging kisses.

Here, now with her family. She is finally healed.